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How to make a paper 3-D tree for a classroom

Megan Shoop Updated November 21, 2016

Children love hands-on classroom activities. Not only do these projects get your students moving and thinking, the kids get to socialise and take a break from lectures. Plus, follow-up activities give students another mode for retaining and recalling information. You can even give them discussion questions while they work. Creating a 3-D classroom tree or forest can be a follow-up to a lesson about plants, ecosystems, or even a history lesson about Christmas. Since these trees repurpose some household items, you can also talk about conservation and the environment.

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Fold a 22.5 cm by 27.5 cm (9 by 11 inch) piece of green paper in half width-wise. Crease it sharply, open it and cut it apart down the crease.

Lay the paper halves on top of each other and fold them lengthwise, creasing the fold sharply. Start near the top of the paper against the fold and draw one half of a pine tree outline.

Slit one pine tree cutout halfway down, from the tip down. Slit the other halfway up from the base up. Slide the two slits together. This creates a four-sided, 3-D tree top.

Snip four 6 mm (1/4 inch) slits in the top edge of your toilet paper tube. Wiggle one bottom edge of your pine tree cutout into each slit. This creates the trunk of your tree. Put all the trees together to create a forest.

Tip

Decorate the trees with mini-pinecones and a little white paint for a winter forest. Use puff-paints, mini pom-poms, sequins and tinsel to decorate Christmas trees. Cover your toilet-paper tube trunk with brown paper for a more realistic look. Cut the tubes to varying heights for a forest of trees in different sizes. Piece together two rounded shapes to make a deciduous tree top.

Warning

Monitor children when working with scissors, it can be difficult to cut into the toilet paper tubes.